Posts Tagged ‘Lone Mountain’

Lone Mountain campus, where Suzanne Somers lost her music scholarship and got kicked out of school, you know, for getting preggers, a half century ago.

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Yowzer:

“She was accepted at San Francisco College for Women (commonly referred to as “Lone Mountain College“), a now-defunct single sex school which became a campus of the Jesuit University of San Francisco. She won a music scholarship, but became pregnant after six months. She married the baby’s father, “Bruce Somers”, and her only child, Bruce Somers, was born in November 1965. She was unhappy in her marriage and began an affair with her former drama teacher. Her husband found out about it and the marriage ended after just two years, in 1967. A single mom, she turned to modeling in San Francisco to support herself and her son. She also distanced herself from her family because her older brother and sister by then were also alcoholics. In 1968, she won a job as a prize model on a game show hosted by her future husband, Alan Hamel, who was married at the time. The two began dating, and she became pregnant while Hamel was still married. They came to the conclusion that Suzanne should have an abortion, from which she suffered severe bleeding for several days. In 1970, she auditioned for Playboy’s Playmate of the Month and got as far as a test series of photos taken in the Mexican jungle. She was fully nude except for a gold chain around her waist.[Yowser!]. Playboy decided not to use her at the time, but paid her $3,000 for the test. After she became a star on Three’s Company (1976), Playboy published the entire series of photos and the handwritten Data Sheet that each potential Playmate fills out (in which she gives the year of her birth as 1947). At the time of its publication, she was a popular (and for her, lucrative) spokeswoman in a series of TV commercials for Ace Hardware. Following the publication of the pictures, Ace abruptly fired her, citing the contract’s morals clause. In 1971, her son Bruce was severely injured when he was hit by a car, and the therapist counseling him only charged the struggling Suzanne $1 per week. Suzanne herself also underwent therapy to overcome the problems of her dysfunctional childhood…”

Fat Tire Planet wants to drive you around town in their open-top fire truck from the 1960’s. Fair enough.

Will the ride up AnzaHill (did I date an Anza Hill in college? Something close to that.) on bloody Masonic Avenue in the western Western Addition / NOPA area inspire you to stand up and raise your arms in the air like you just don’t care? Possibly.

Yes, this 1968 Howe Defender 90 just might feel like a roller coaster on the hilly streets of San Francisco. As seen near Mervyn’s Heights:

– The flood of bicycle tourists into Sausalito who tend to create traffic concerns all over the city and Marin.

– Those little motorized yellow two-seatersthat are difficult to spot in your rearview and side-view mirrors are louder than cars, aggravating to pedestrians and are often driven by people who don’t seem to understand the rules of the road here. How are those even legal?

– I recently had the displeasure of being stuck on Divisadero next to a lumbering yellow fire enginethat had been repurposed as a tour bus - not the quaint older type, but a modern truck: FatTirePlanet.comIn an eco-friendly town such as San Francisco, how is it possible that we [sic] can provide permits of operation to such an unnecessary mode of transport that certainly damages the environment?

See? All you tourists are warned – stay off of bicycles, two-seaters, and “modern” fire trucks when you visit the area.

But if you must ride on a firetruck tour, please, by all means, keep it quaint.

Engine #1 is a 1968 Howe Defender 90, used by the Contra Costa County Fire Department until her pump seized in the mid 1990s. Fat Tire Planet owner Cyrus Forootan bought her at auction in 2000, and spent 4 years working with local artists

Hop on board Engine #1, the Biggest Hot-Rod Convertible in California – Bright yellow, surrounded by red flames, she embodies the creative eccentricity of San Francisco!

Engine #1 breaks the mold of traditional touring – passengers can take in the sounds, smells and spectacular views of the city from her open-air seating deck. No other tour vehicle can come close to bringing the most beautiful city in the United States to LIFE!

All year long, weather permitting, the fire truck is available for private parties and charters. We have blankets, you BYOB. Minimum 15 passengers @ $30/ person for 3 hours for charters.

During the summer season (May-October), we specialize in San Francisco city tours on a customized yellow open air fire truck with an awesome sound systemand an amazing flame job. We can accommodate up to 25 people.